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Ochelata to consider expansion

Public hearings will be held later this month on a pair of annexation proposals that could significantly enlarge the footprint of the Town of Ochelata.

The two proposals call for annexation of 10 tracts of land, according to notices presented to Washington County Commissioners on Monday.

The first proposals would add seven pieces of property located east of the existing Ochelata townsite and the other annexation proposal has three tracts.

One of the tracts of land involved in the first proposal is owned by the Cherokee Nation. Betty Barnes, the Ochelata town treasurer, said the Cherokee-owned property comprises approximately 240 acres along County Road 2900.

The public hearings are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. on June 26 in Ochelata Town Hall, 149 S. Ochelata Street. Persons who attend the hearings may present information concerning the proposals, according to the notices. The hearing notices state that the Ochelata Board of Trustees “will determine whether or not annexation will be in the best interest of the Town of Ochelata.”

Ochelata is currently comprised of approximately .2 square miles of land, according to the US Census Bureau.

The settlement that became Ochelata was founded about 1898 by Thomas Ellis, who had bought 40 acres from Cherokee landowner Jacob Dick. Ellis called his community Otis, but the name was changed to Ochelata in late 1899 — the same year that the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad reached the community.

A post office was established in Ochelata on March 23, 1900, and the town was incorporated in 1902. Ochelata was probably chosen as the new town name in honor of former Cherokee Principal Chief Charles Thompson, whose Cherokee name was Oochalata.